BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Despite COVID-19, the Australian arts community is gearing up for a promising start to 2021.
The Bendigo Chamber Music Festival will feature 15 recitals, with 16 musicians travelling to a venue that hasn’t hosted a concert in 12 months, due to COVID-19.
The Melbourne Digital Concert Hall is about to enter its second year, providing performance opportunities to artists whose livelihoods have been affected by cancellations and lockdowns.
The 3MBS Haydn Marathon will showcase musicians of Melbourne for a worthy cause, with concerts raising much-needed funds to support this important community radio station.
One might ask what these major events have in common. To that, we’ll give you a name: Chris Howlett.
The cellist co-founded MDCH with Adele Schonhardt, co-directs BCMF with Howard Penny, and is artistic director to this year’s 3MBS Haydn Marathon.
(And, on top of it all, he still finds two hours a day for cello practice.)
Stealing a moment for ourselves, we ask Chris — one of Australia’s foremost arts leaders — to share his advice about time management during the era of COVID-19.
Chris, first up: Bendigo Chamber Music Festival. Why is it important to you that this festival should proceed, given the difficulties of the time?
I think that in 2021, we must try — where safe — to support the Australian art scene and to bring music back to venues.
The Capital Theatre in Bendigo hasn’t had a concert since Bendigo Chamber Music Festival 2020, which has been 12 months! We have many different pivotable plans to make sure that BCMF is COVID-compliant and safe for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, you needed to cancel New South Wales artists’ events. But on the flip side, you’ve reopened a venue after its COVID-19 dry spell, you’ve lined up a live broadcast, and you’re bringing players and listeners into the Bendigo region for five days of beautiful music. If any planning project has sounded like a rollercoaster, it’s this one.
Howard and I definitely discussed a multitude of programming options. It’s almost like we have done enough logistics and artistic plans for three festivals, not one.
It has indeed been a rollercoaster but, as we move forward, we tick every day off as a positive. In the world of COVID-19, events need a multitude of plans organised. But once they are in place, for our own mental health we have to stop stressing, watch the numbers, and work out which plan we will use.
Now, you’re working across three major initiatives simultaneously: the 3MBS Haydn Marathon, BCMF, and MDCH — and some are linked, bringing benefit to a community of listeners. Tell us a bit about your brainspace as you juggle three projects.
Mental bandwidth is definitely something that needs managing at the moment. I try to break down my days into the different projects and different whiteboards of ‘To Do’ lists, plus — and most importantly — get my two hours of cello practice done before lunch.
Of course, there is crossover that comes from intimate knowledge of the three different project all [culminating] in February, and generally it eases the way for artists, MDCH recording engineers, etc. as I have an understanding of their workloads.
Let’s talk about time management. On a practical level, it’s hard to imagine you’d have any time in the day for such a combination of duties. How do you segment your working week?
Time management is key. MDCH is normally very early morning at the moment, making sure conversations are moving ahead well for the whole 26 concerts in February. Co-founder Adele Schonhardt and I have a great working relationship, and allocating roles within the company has been key for both of our sanity.
A quick BCMF focus runs from 9am with coffee in hand, before cello from 10am. After lunch, it’s BCMF, and then printing, lanyard making, and toddler dinner all from 5pm.
On BCMF, not only have you worked in a leadership capacity and with all the challenges this would ‘usually’ bring, but you’ve had to make changes due to COVID-19. When you’re working on a project with unpredictable and therefore constantly expanding parametres, how do you not become overwhelmed? The administration of responding to COVID-19 is a job in itself.
The key is to make plans for a multitude of situations with clear trigger points, and then put them down and watch the numbers and health briefings. This way, I can try to minimise the endless hypotheticals that form COVID-19 because, as we have all learnt, no matter how much you discuss the situation today, tomorrow can be very different.
Without this approach, it can be crippling — and then you never have the ability to pivot quickly.
How have you worked with the musicians and other staff at BCMF to make sure you’re giving everybody your attention or some answers they might be looking for? That is, how do you make the arts workers around you feel comfortable, but without stretching yourself thin with the workload of such responsibilities?
My phone is always on, and I chat to our interstate musicians daily via text, and most days with the staff at the venue. Openness is key, and reassurances are vital.
I would hope that through MDCH last year, plus Howard Penny and my decade of running Sanguine Estate Music Festival, that the artists and teams associated with BCMF know that we will always have the artists’ best interest at heart.
What advice would you give to other artists of Australia when it comes to time management during COVID-19?
Make your multiple plans and trigger points early and then, even though it is hard, prepare as you would have in a pre-COVID world.
If everything goes well, then we have to present the very best piece, concert, festival that we can — and that only comes from great preparation.
When it feels like the industry is struggling, it may be tempting to feel a greater sense of urgency when it comes to professional projects. But in order to sustain professional life, how important is it to maintain a balance with the personal side of life — family, friends, downtime? And how do you balance this in your day, from scheduling to stealing a moment?
Simply put, in 2020, I didn’t. MDCH was and is epic, and I’m not sure it would have been possible to achieve what we did without Adele and I pouring 18-hour days into the company for nine months.
This year, hopefully it is different, with more time to run and spend time with the family.
To continue to lead with clarity and creativity, a balance and mental ‘off’ time is important. There is only so long that one can work at 150 per cent capacity. Come May 2021, when my wife Elle and I welcome our second child into our family, that balance will have to adjust again.
Before we go, how has the BCMF team helped you manage your time, as a community of arts practitioners doing their best? What’s the value of this teamwork in running a project efficiently?
The team at the Capital Theatre is brilliant. Working with their team leaders on logistics, ticketing, and marketing has enabled us to get to the strong place that we are now.
BCMF is run by just Howard and I in Melbourne, so we couldn’t do it without a fabulous team in Bendigo.
The Bendigo Chamber Music Festival kicks off 3 February. Digital tickets are available via the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall website.
The 3MBS Haydn Marathon takes place 27 February.
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If you like, you can thank Steph for volunteering her time for Australian arts journalism during the pandemic. No amount too much or little 🙂
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